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Requesting Time Off

Written by Medtrics

What it does

You request time off from your Benefits page, or from the Time off action on your clinical schedule — both create the same leave request: pick a leave type, choose dates, and submit. The platform calculates the amount against your balance, warns you about scheduling conflicts and blackout periods before you submit, and routes the request through your program's approval workflow.

Who it's for

Anyone with a time-based benefit account — learners, residents, and staff members in the personal portal. Approvers and administrators handle the resulting requests in the admin portal.

How it works

From your Benefits dashboard, open a new time-off request. The form shows only your time-based leave types, each with its available balance next to it.

Dates and duration. You choose a start and end date; past dates cannot be selected. For a single day you can switch on partial day and enter start and end times, and the requested amount becomes the exact duration between those times. Full-day requests are calculated as the number of days multiplied by the category's configured day length. You can also mark the request as high urgency and add a description and notes for your approver.

While you fill in dates, the platform checks for conflicts in real time:

  • Schedule conflicts — the dates overlap a clinical block or rotation you are scheduled for.

  • Overlapping time off — you already have approved time off in that range.

  • Blackout periods — your program has blocked those dates for this leave type.

Conflicts are shown with a severity: informational, warning, or blocking. Blackout dates set on the leave type prevent submission for those dates.

Submitting. You can save the request as a draft and finish it later, or submit it right away. On submission the amount is reserved against your available balance and the request enters the approval workflow, or is approved immediately if no approval steps are configured for that leave type.

Before you start

  • You need at least one time-based benefit account. If you have none, the time-off form shows an empty state instead.

  • Know your leave type and dates before you start. Past start dates cannot be selected.

Do this

  1. On the Benefits page (/benefits), or from the Time off action on your schedule, open a new request → the Request Time Off dialog opens.

  2. Choose the Leave Type → you should see its available balance next to the field.

  3. Set Start Date and End Date, or turn on Partial Day and set start and end times for a single day → the dialog warns you if the dates fall in a Blackout Period.

  4. Optionally set Priority to High and add notes in the dialog → the Request Summary section shows the calculated amount and your balance after approval.

  5. Select Submit Request, or Save as Draft in the dialog to finish later → the request appears in Request History with Submitted (or Draft) status.

You're done when

  • Your request shows in Request History with the right dates and status.

  • The requested amount shows as pending on your balance until it is approved, rejected, or cancelled.

From Request History you can track each request through its statuses — draft, submitted, approved, rejected, cancelled — and open the details to see decision notes. Drafts and submitted requests can still be edited (each edit is counted and timestamped) or cancelled; approved and rejected requests cannot.

Boundaries and limits

  • You can only create requests against your own benefit accounts, and the leave type must belong to the account you selected.

  • The date picker does not allow start dates in the past.

  • Partial-day requests require both a start and an end time, and the leave type must be one where partial days make sense for your program's setup.

  • If the requested amount exceeds your available balance you are warned in the form, and the final approval step refuses any deduction that would take your account below its minimum (or below zero unless the category allows negative balances).

  • Editing is only possible while a request is a draft or still awaiting a decision. After approval or rejection, ask an administrator if a correction is needed.

  • A cancelled request cannot be cancelled again; cancelling releases the reserved amount.

  • Schedule change requests no longer create leave. Time off from the schedule UI opens this same Benefits form.

  • After final approval, your program may either flag overlapping clinical assignments or auto-cancel them (configured under Benefits time-off admin → Approval workflow). Approved leave appears on the schedule overlay either way.

Common questions

Q: How is the requested amount calculated? A: Full days count as your program's configured day length per day, for each day from start to end date inclusive. A partial day counts the exact time between your start and end times.

Q: What happens to my balance when I submit? A: The amount is reserved immediately and shown as pending. It is deducted for real only at final approval, and released if the request is rejected or cancelled.

Q: Why can't I submit for certain dates? A: Your program can define blackout periods per leave type. The form flags those dates and blocks submission for them.

Q: Can I change a request after submitting it? A: Yes, as long as it has not been approved or rejected yet. Edits are tracked, so approvers can see the request was changed.

Q: Can I start a time-off request from my schedule? A: Yes. The Time off action on the schedule opens this Benefits form so your leave is always captured against your balance.

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